As mentioned in the article Top 5 Video Editing Software Programs, there are many good free video editing software programs available. The two that will be discussed in this post are Microsoft Movie Maker and Wax. Microsoft Movie Maker is simple and self explanatory. The pane on the left side of the screen makes it easy to get started and follow through with the project. The story board on the bottom of the screen allows the user to easily drag video clips into a desired sequence before editing. The user is also given the option to add and edit audio, transitions, and split clips. The user can change the story board view into a timeline view where he/she can manipulate the length of various clips and audio files. In toying with this program, it was noted that titles can be added to clips. The transition of the titles can be manipulated as well. This would be a great program to use in the classroom to make a movie about any interesting topic. It is so easy to use that the students would be able to use it readily. Wax is similar to Movie Maker in its capabilities, but is not as straight forward. One may have to refer to the manual to learn how to complete various tasks such as importing videos and editing those videos. Wax has the story board and timeline views, but is not as user-friendly as Movie Maker. One important aspect of technology use in the classroom, especially for digital immigrants, is ease of use. Many veteran teachers may be fearful of using a program that requires them to read the manual rather than looking at the screen and being able to figure out what to do.
I edited a personal video clip of my daughter. I found that for both programs I had to convert the file type. I chose to use Microsoft Movie Maker due to the fact that it was easier for me to manipulate. Before I could edit my video clips, I had to convert the files from mpg to WMV using a free video converter that I found online.
I edited a personal video clip of my daughter. I found that for both programs I had to convert the file type. I chose to use Microsoft Movie Maker due to the fact that it was easier for me to manipulate. Before I could edit my video clips, I had to convert the files from mpg to WMV using a free video converter that I found online.